


adventuring is good for the heart

by Masala_Chai



Series: The (maybe) forever WIPs [2]
Category: Bleach, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Crossover, Exploration, Gen, Self-Insert, Traverse Town (Kingdom Hearts), non canon compliant fandoms in Kingdom Hearts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 04:37:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14730074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masala_Chai/pseuds/Masala_Chai
Summary: When her world falls, like so many others, Anastasia is booted across the cosmos and joins the other refugees in Traverse Town. Now, she only needs to survive the Heartless, untilsomeonefinally get rid of them. Someone is bound to do it, right? It won't be her because she's definitely no hero, but it doesn't mean that she can't explore these new worlds, right.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This won't be a self-insert-as-new-main-hero fic. I just wanted to write a character who explores and travels to new worlds/fandoms, and Kingdom Hearts was perfect for that.  
> Also, Sephiroth, lol. Who can resist. (though Sephiroth might be a strong argument, but he won't be the main opponent/secondary character. I don't even know if he'll show up at some point. But I like knowing that he's available xD ).
> 
> I also started writing this because I've been staring at a blank page for weeks now and my creativity has somehow gone on vacation. This is [written using this list of prompts](https://kathrineroid.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/100-themes-challenge-writing-prompts/) as "guideline".
> 
> Also, English isn't my first language, so there are certainly mistakes and things sounding awkward in there.  
> \---

When they somehow land in Traverse Town, Anastasia’s _a bit_ less lost than some of the others. A bit.

Apparently, most worlds had no idea that they weren’t “alone”. Scientists from her own planet had been pretty sure that other worlds where close, and they even had some clue about which ones and how they were, but they’d still been a long way from having the science to visit said worlds. Or the interest.

‘I’m from Gaia’, she says when people ask, which turns out to be really damn weird because apparently there are several _Gaias_? So weird. Then again, some call their world _Earth_. Such creativity, she thinks, but doesn’t say. She’s found at least three _Gaias_ so far and funnily enough, those are all “aware” worlds.

‘The Gaia of steam and art’, she changes to, eventually, because her world’s technology was steam-powered, which seems to be unique as far as she can tell, so far, and her people were more focused on reading and creating and art related work which is a good enough description. Not the greatest world because focusing on what is more or less a hobby, also meant that they didn’t pay attention to anything past their current book or such. They could have been better at caring for and helping each other, if they hadn’t been focused on the worlds in their heads.

It didn’t matter much now, since their Gaia had been destroyed. It was a good way to differentiate from the SOLDIERs’ Gaia, the Gaia of the Mercenaries, and the Gaia of Spirits, at least. There were a couple others Gaia, but mostly those were the ones who caught people’s attention. Because those worlds had fighters, which were priceless against the Heartless.

There was also the fact that the SOLDIERs’ Gaia was their current world, so far restricted to the renamed “Traverse Town”, the place where displaced civilians ended up. She’s not sure how they got here from their world, but as everything else, it seemed to have something to do with their Hearts. They had “strong hearts”, she’d heard one of the town’s defenders mutter.

She’s heard one lady talk about a castle too, which is supposed to be close to the town? There’s nothing but ravines and deserted plains now anyway. And Heartless. If there was a castle, it has been separated from the world and, at best, “flung” elsewhere. If they’re lucky, it managed to stay in one piece and is drifting somewhere in between the worlds. It’s probably still in one piece if it’s anything like Traverse Town, the people and object of this world being strong and determined, but Anastasia wonders if it’ll ever be reunited with its world one day.

Right now, she has other things to worry about. Like the fact that she doesn’t know how to protect herself and Traverse Town might have more defenders than other places, it’s still full of Heartless, especially the little black ones who travel in packs and mob lone travelers as soon as they see an opening. She’s not a SOLDIER or even a regular fighter, but she’s not going to hide away in the protected places, with no way to move around because she can’t defend herself. Living in one closed town is already giving her cabin fever, she’s not going to be confined in one room too. 


	2. Complicated

“It’s complicated” is an old joke and she doesn’t even remember where she heard about it, but it’s a good slogan to describe her life these days, Anastasia thinks absently.

She’s been learning how to fight from the Heartless Resistance group. Not much, because they don’t exactly have a lot of time off, but enough that she can wield a staff without smacking herself in the face, at least. She’d been surprised at first that they were even willing, until she realized that yes, they were _that_ desperate. No pressure.

She doesn’t usually great newcomers. Most of the time, it’s Leon or Yuffie’s job, which didn’t make sense at first. That is, until she realized that they needed to make sure that the new people weren’t going to be as dangerous as the Heartless. So they sends fighters as welcoming committee, even though she’s pretty sure that Leon hates how tedious it is.

Recently though, they didn’t have this option. A new crop of Heartless have popped up near the hotel and with people in danger, they couldn’t risk taking fighters away to wait around and say hello.

It’s three days until the door is pushed open and people start coming through.

“I really don’t fucking care, Urahara,” the guy in front is saying when they cross through.

She’s seen a lot of different people, some not even actually “people” by her world’s definition, so those two are relatively tame to her new sense. The youngest, the one who talked, is tall with shockingly orange hair and an even more shockingly large sword swung on his back. She’d be gaping if she hadn’t seen that blond from Aeris’ world already (from afar because he didn’t seem to even come close to the town, except that he somehow did resupply here, the shop keepers said). Also, Sephiroth. That one she’s only seen once, quick as a flash, when he dropped by to taunt the blond and they rushed away, but she’s seen his _sword_. She didn’t even know that swords could be this long. Also, how the hell does he manage to swing it around?

“And yet…” the other guy starts. He trails off when he sees Anastasia though.

This one is blond, hair rebelling a bit from under his white and green striped hat. He’s wearing weird-ish clothes, something that reminds her of Yuffie for some reason. She might have seen something similar in the books from the makeshift library. Most of them are from this Gaia, it would make sense. Sort of.

Anastasia shakes herself from those thoughts and steps forward. She doesn’t let down her staff because that’s just stupid here, but she does angle it away from the newcomers.

“Hello,” she says, “I’m Anastasia.”

There’s a moment of silence which makes her tense. She’s _not_ anywhere near on a level to fight with those two, even if there was only one of them.

“Ichigo,” the one with the bright orange hair answers eventually. “And that’s Urahara.”

She nods, swallowing her nerves. “Welcome to Traverse Town. Do you have any idea of how you got here?”

She got the impression that Ichigo’s resting face falls closer to “frowny” than “smiling”, but right now he’s gone straight to “I want to kill something”.

“The Hollows went mad and overrun my world. Urahara used… something, which somehow dropped us in front of this door.”

It feels like he’s conveniently omitting half of the story, but she ignores it. It doesn’t matter anyway, everyone’s story is the same, in the end.

“They’re called Heartless, actually. But Hollow works too, since they’re definitely missing something. They hunt for Hearts and when they get yours, you turn into a Heartless too. They invade worlds when they manage to find the Door and take the people. Most worlds crumble once all life has been taken away,” she explains quickly. Fighter types usually prefer the rip-the-bandage-at-once approach.

Ichigo grows pale and shaky for a moment, closing his eyes. Urahara tips his hat forward over his eyes, hiding.

 “Traverse Town, you said,” Urahara says eventually.

“Yeah. It’s a remnant from a previous town of this world. I don’t know the original name, but somehow this Gaia must be in the middle of the cosmos or something, because survivors all end up here. Careful though: we’ve got defenders, so there are less Heartless than in most places, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any. And they tend to travel in pack.”

“ _This_ Gaia?”

“Yeah, it’s apparently a popular planet name.” She shrugs. “I come from a Gaia too. At last count, I know of five of them?”

“Messy.”

“I call mine ‘Gaia of steam and arts’. Here’s the ‘SOLDIERs’ Gaia’.”

“You pronounce SOLDIER in a weird way? I take it that it’s deliberate?”

 “Yup. It’s actually an acronym. They’re not regular people, they’re scientifically enhanced.” She can’t quite hide her shudder. Ichigo looks vaguely homicidal. She sort of wants to know what happened on his world to give him bad memories, and yet, not. She’s heard a lot of horror stories, since she got here. Survivors are always stronger than mere civilians.

“We don’t have many of them left,” she continues deliberately. “Some died while trying to protect the town when the first wave came through the Door. Others have disappeared. We’re not sure if they got caught or if they were on the parts of the world that separated when it broke.”

“Broke?!”

“Yes. This world is… special. I’m not sure why. One of the defender says that the planet’s tried to protect them by sending the infested parts away. She’s generally right, so, who knows? It’s complicated.” Anastasia shrugs. It sounds weird, but she’s seen weirder these days.

Irvin finally shows up, looking a bit rough on the edges, but awake enough to take over.

“Good. Irvin, this is Ichigo and Urahara. Guys, Irvin, another defender. We can go now that he’s taking over the gate. I’ll show you a place where you can stay. It’s not great but there aren’t _that_ many refugees, unfortunately, so we aren’t that bad off.”

“Lead the way, Miss Anastasia,” Urahara says after sharing a nod with the marksman.


End file.
